Halloween icon, the spider:
Over a calm creek
🕷️ webs glisten; spinners
drink their fresh water
How do spiders drink water? 💧
Spiders get part of their fluid intake from prey, and they also acquire water—in the form of dew—from their webs.
In addition:
House spiders may drink from condensation on window sills, and pet spiders must be provided with a water dish to drink from.
Kate Latham, Insect Cop
In fact, a spider actually drinks water with its ‘mouth’; however, the mouth of a spider operates differently from the way we normally think of a mouth eating food.
🕷️ Mouthparts 🕷️
Like insects, a spider’s mouth consists of several mouthparts. These include the chelicerae, which work in a fashion comparable to straws.
In short, spiders use muscles to suck their liquid up. (Imagine, not licking, but drinking pooled water off of a tabletop.)
That liquid is filtered at the chelicerae opening, and again through fine-toothed tubes where it continues through a pharyngeal area to the esophageal tube, pulled along by the spider’s “sucking stomach”.
Spiders tend to drink slowly, and it can take several minutes for them to get their fill. Larger species (such as tarantulas) may need to drink for several hours
-K.Latham
Basically, when it becomes thirsty, a spider will saunter over to a bubble of water and sip to its heart’s content. Some people think it’s very cute.
Did you know that spiders drink water?
Have you ever seen a spider drink water?
FURTHER READING
How do spiders drink water? The Complete Guide
“An entomologist studies insects while an arachnologist studies spiders—
They’re not “Entomologists” because Ento people study 6 legged things and Arachno people study 8 legged things”. ~SciBugs, “What is an Entomologist?”
Life's Poetic Essence 